A Partnership for Play

We’re excited to announce a new partnership with Unchartered Play! Unchartered Play partners with community-centered and mission-based non-profits (like us!) to impact energy access, education innovation, and physical wellness. We’ve teamed up with them for many reasons, but primarily because they share a similar understanding with iACT – that bringing joy, imagination, and hope to children through play is an invaluable investment in their future.

“Play is something we all share, no matter where we are from or what we look like. When children play, they learn to solve problems, see what’s possible, improvise, work in groups, take chances, make decisions, challenge convention, and self-advocate. Play pushes us to experiment with the world and our place in it without consequence, designing and building a future we want – one built on joy, imagination and hope.” – Unchartered Play

Unchartered Play is donating their energy creating SOCCKET soccer ball and Think Out of Bounds curriculum to iACT so that we may test the technology and curriculum with the Darfur United Soccer Academy. The SOCCKET is a portable, power generating soccer ball that gets charged up during normal game play. With every roll of the ball, power is generatedto lift up a 3-LED lamp. Just 1 hour of play can give up to 3 hours of light! Which means if the SOCCKET gets used during the DU Soccer Academy each day as a normal ball during the drills and scrimmages, it will in turn provide light for coaches and children to read and do homework in the evening!

In addition, the SOCCKET is accompanied with arabic curriculum that teachers children about social innovation and becoming the problem solvers, makers, and doers of their community. Like iACT, Unchartered Play believes in using meaningful play to both inspire and educate people. We’ll work with the DU Soccer Academy coaches to decide how best to integrate and teach the curriculum to the children for the most effective impact. We’ll also share the curriculum with primary and secondary schools in the camp to see if teachers would also like to integrate the curriculum into their lesson plans. All in all, lots of opportunity for impact. We appreciate the opportunity to partner with Unchartered Play in order to give Darfur refugees more critical access to refugee-led play and education.

But we still need your help! Our aim is to implement the SOCCKET soccer ball and the curriculum with the Darfur United Soccer Academy in camp Goz Amer this November. However, in order for iACT to train and employ 4 more refugee coaches and to give 2,000 boys and girls the opportunity to learn and be empowered through play and innovative curriculum, we still need to reach our goal of $10,000! Will you help us get there!?